The future career of his only son, James William, was a constant source of anxiety, James health was never robust.

He was sent to school in England. It had been Douglas' aspirations that he graduate from a respected university and pursue law, but his health was never good enough to fulfil his fathers aspirations for him. His father felt that he lacked application, and moved him from one school to the next. In 1870, James came home for a holiday and never came back, though his health somewhat improved. James studied law for a time with the first premier of BC, J.F. McCreight. He was eventually elected to the Provincial Legislature, serving as a junior member for Victoria from 1876 to 1878. The year of his fathers death, James wed Mary Elliott, the daughter of BC's Attorney General A.C. Elliot. James died at the age of thirty two.